Roman Yakovlevich Dzindzichashvili (; pronounced jin-jee-khash-VEE-lee; born May 5, 1944) is a Soviet-born Israeli-American chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1977.
Life and career
Born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR into a family of Georgian Jews, his older brother is Nodar Djin. Dzindzichashvili won the Junior Championship of the Soviet Union in 1962 and the University Championships in 1966 and 1968. In 1970, he was awarded the title of International Master by FIDE. He left the U.S.S.R. in 1976 for Israel and earned the Grandmaster (GM) title in 1977. One of his best career performances was first place at the 53rd Hastings Chess Festival in 1977/1978, scoring 10½ out of 14 points, a full point ahead of former world champion Tigran Petrosian. In 1979, he settled in the United States, and he won the Lone Pine tournament the next year. He led the U.S.team at the Chess Olympiad in 1984.
He won the U.S. Chess Championship twice, in 1983 and again in 1989, sharing the title with two other players each time. He briefly took up residence in Washington Square Park in New York City, and hustled chess during the 1980s, making a living playing blitz for stakes, as is popular there. He had a cameo in the 1993 film Searching for Bobby Fischer. He also had a brief appearance in Men Who Would Be Kings, a documentary about chess in Washington Square Park set in the 1980s.
Dzindzichashvili is a well-known theoretician and a chess coach. Among his students are 5-time U.S. Champion Gata Kamsky and Eugene Perelshteyn. He is the author and star of multiple chess instructional DVDs entitled "Roman's Lab". He currently produces instructional videos for Chess.com. Topics include openings, middlegames, endgames, famous players, and interesting games.
He is one of the founders of Chess.net internet chess server project, started in 1993. He played third board for the "GGGg" team that won the Amateur Team East tournament in February 2008.
Notable games
Dzindzichashvili vs. computer programs
Dzindzichashvili played a series of rapid games against the computer program Fritz in 1991 and 1993. In the following game he checkmated the program in only 28 moves.
In a match held on March 3–7, 2008, Dzindzichashvili played a series of eight games, time control 45'+10", against the computer program Rybka, with Rybka giving odds of pawn and move. The series ended in a 4–4 tie. A return match, at the same odds, was played on July 28, 2008, at the faster than tournament time control (30'+20"). Rybka 3, running on eight CPUs, won by the score 2½–1½ (1 victory and 3 draws).
Game from 1969
In 1969, in the USSR, Dzindzichahsvili had a quick win against GM Grigoryan.
See also
List of Jewish chess players
References
Further reading
External links
The Dzindzichashvili– Rybka 3 Handicap Match, Chessbase.com
1944 births
Living people
Chess grandmasters
Chess coaches
American chess players
Chess players from Georgia (country) Israeli chess players Soviet chess players Jewish chess players Jews from Georgia (country) Sportspeople from Tbilisi American people of Georgian-Jewish descent